Todd Kohlman's life revolves around snowboarding, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

On a typical winter day, he starts on the mountain. He snowboards for two hours and then heads to the office where he is surrounded by boards and the sport's history.

Kohlman, or "TK" as his co-workers call him, is in charge of Burton's history — all 38 years. The 37-year-old is the snowboarding company's archivist, a dream come true for someone who has a passion for the sport.

As archivist, Kohlman oversees a collection of artifacts, an on-site museum and gives tours to the public at the company's Burlington headquarters. His job is unique not only to Burton, but to the snowboarding world. Kohlman is the only archivist in the industry, he said.

"History really allows us to look back on everything we have done over the past 38 years and inspires us in new directions," he said.

The Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce sees a lot of Vermont businesses keeping an eye not only on their company's past, but Vermont's past as well to guide their future, said Catherine Davis, vice president for strategy and public affairs for the chamber.

"While not every business has an archivist, we often see businesses looking at past successes, bringing back versions of classic products or thinking about their company history as they make decisions going forward," Davis said. "Burton has such a remarkable history, both in their industry and as a Vermont business."

Though his job focuses on the past, Kohlman is also a big part of the future of Burton. He is in charge of pulling artifacts that help to shape the future of Burton's products, from boards to boots to bindings.

He has studied catalogs, flipped through pictures and even tested products, old and new. If it's in Burton's history, Kohlman most likely knows the answer. Evan Rose, creative director for Burton said Kohlman can't be stumped.

"His knowledge and passion is undeniable, and anyone who has the opportunity to take a tour with him can sense his love for snowboarding," Rose said.

Kohlman is what some Vermonters call a "flatlander." He grew up in Fond du Lac, Wisc., and learned to snowboard on ski hills outside of Milwaukee. In 1992, Kohlman tried out a friend's snowboard and was hooked. He gave his skis to his dad and never looked back.

"I grew up torturing my parents making them watch snowboarding videos and I had all of this useless information in my head," Kohlman said. "If you had told me I would be here, even just in this building, I never would have believed it."

The first snowboard he purchased was a 1992 Craig Kelly board, created for the professional rider. Several of those boards now sit in the museum at Burton's headquarters.

Buy Photo

Todd Kohlman, archivist at Burton snowboards in Burlington, gives a tour of the company’s historic photos and equipment on Monday.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)

Ten years later Kohlman drove out to Burlington with his father to check out Burton's facilities. He met with a human resources representative and applied for positions within the company until he was eventually hired in 2002 for a seasonal position in customer service.

Once he was in the building, Kohlman picked up jobs in numerous departments including spare parts, rider service and he eventually landed at the front desk.

In 2006 his boss approached him about starting a new job. Founder Jake Burton wanted to create an archivist position to organize the company's history and form a museum, and he had selected Kohlman for the position.

"It's really a dream come true," Kohlman said.

Dressed in Burton gear head-to-toe Monday, Kohlman rattled off facts about the company's history on a tour of its Burlington headquarters. He knows the name of the artists who designed each deck, which jacket Jake Burton wore in 1982 and where every photo that hangs on the wall was taken.

Kohlman is a fount of knowledge in the Craig Kelly Proto Facility in Burlington. The facility is a 10,000 square foot building that houses Burton's custom-built machinery. Here, engineers can experiment with new ideas and build a board in a matter of hours. Visitors can see it all up close.

Tours are open to the public and led by Kohlman at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. He encourages people to sign up online and get a look at Burton's history and the people who paved the way for snowboarding.

Visitors start in "The Barn," a modern version of the barn where Jake Burton built boards in Manchester. The original sign even hangs over the sliding barn door.

The room features archived photos, products and videos from the first 30 years of Burton's history, including the Snurfer — basically a board with a string on it for the rider to hold onto while standing up.

From The Barn, visitors move through the facility to see the company's 3D printers, graphic design center and are shown the step-by-step process of how each snowboard is made by hand.

Buy Photo

Burton snowboards’ original sign on display at the company’s headquarters in Burlington.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)

That is only a slice of Kohlman's job. As historian, he is also a part of the production and design team.

Designers and engineers come to him when they want to take a look at a piece of Burton's past and recreate it or use it as inspiration for the future. Engineers work two years ahead, so while 2015 products are on the shelves, they are creating boards, boots and more for 2017 and beyond, Kohlman said.

New technology that is housed in "Craig's" allows Burton staff to build a prototype one day and test it on snow the next. The company has a Selective Laser Sintering machine that uses a laser to fuse small particles of plastic, metal, ceramic or glass powders into a three-dimensional mass.

An engineer can ask Kohlman to pull a product from the 1990s and designers can re-create it in a matter of hours. It's a seamless process, Kohlman said, and the archives serve as a tool to keep making products better and better.

"Sometimes we look at stuff and say 'this was a good idea back then, but how can tweak it to make it great,'" he said.

This winter, Burton launched the Throwback Snowboard, a plywood model based on the Burton Backhill from 1981, which was one of the sport's most popular boards at the time. All of the company's current winter 2015 EST bindings are also a re-creation of the 1995 Burton Contact bindings, he said.

"To see that stuff again, it's like hitting the refresh button," Kohlman said.

Kohlman's job and the company's history can all be summarized into one sentence, he said. Employees are greeted by the words painted on the wall at the entrance to Burton's offices, and when asked why he think it's important for the company to preserve it's history, Kohlman referenced those black letters.

"You have to know where you've been to know where you're going," he said.